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Bobby Lashley defeated Roman Reigns in their first-ever matchup at WWE Extreme Rules 2018. In a bout billed as two men with "massive egos," and one which will presumably decide the next No. 1 Contender for Brock Lesnar's WWE Universal Championship, Lashley was victorious in a match that slowly endeared itself to the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Meanwhile, Ronda Rousey interfered in the Raw Women's Championship at the tail end of her suspension, while AJ Styles retained the WWE Championship against Rusev.

WWE viewership is on shaky ground headed into Extreme Rules. After SmackDown Live drew its second-lowest viewership since moving to USA Network last week, Raw drew its lowest viewership ever for the go-home edition of Extreme Rules. In an encouraging sign, however, SmackDown Live this past Tuesday night did see an 8.4% rebound in viewership for its go-home show.

Cien Almas comes off a so much of a star I literally assumed that the main card had started another hour early. He is beyond pre-show material, and with enough opportunities, the same can be said about Sin Cara.

This should lead to a mask vs. face match where if Almas loses he has to resume wearing his El Sombre mask.

The New Day vs. SAnitY—Tables Match (YouTube Views: 6,657)

Killian Dane comes off as too human with a t-shirt on. He will go nowhere on the WWE roster if fans associate him as someone with any hint of a fashion sense.

SAnitY's rise could lead to a match between AJ Styles vs. Eric Young. At that point, shouldn't WWE just introduce a TNA North Championship?

The Deleter of Worlds vs. The B-Team—Raw Tag Team Championship (YouTube Views: 5,080)

Bray Wyatt and Matt Hardy cut a backstage promo from parts unknown letting everybody know they were next. This was essentially WWE warning its fans that the kickoff show was going to continue for another 15 minutes.

The biggest star of this match was undoubtedly Ronda Rousey.

The B-Team winning the Raw Tag Team Championships feels like if the New York Red Bulls won the World Cup.

Constable Baron Corbin vs. Finn Balor (YouTube Views: 3,232)

Tom Cruise, who comes off as 6'5 in most of his movies, would be exposed as a fraud in WWE, where short wrestlers like Finn Balor are constantly referred to as undersized.

The story of this match was essentially half-naked David vs. Business Casual Goliath.

Finn Balor got the win, but in doing so, he was booked like Barry Horowitz.

James Ellsworth served as a distraction en route to Carmella's second victory over AsukaCredit: WWE.com

The idiots of WWE's production team simply allowed James Ellsworth into a Shark Cage with an oversized jacket and didn't even bother to frisk him. They would have been perfect for the Shawshank Redemption.

The fact that the PPG Paints Arena booed Roman Reigns in the early parts of this match means they're playing nice compared to efforts from other arenas to completely hijack his matches.

Reigns and Lashley were tempting fate with this audience by starting out at such a slow pace.

Hijack Watch:

"We Want Beach Balls"

"Rusev Day"

"Let's Go Roman/Roman Sucks!"

Fans came around, and a hijack was in the rearview mirror the second Bobby Lashley took an insane bump to the outside of the ring.

A Lashley victory just tells me Reigns will be on the right side of even-Steven booking in a potential multi-man match to decide No. 1 contender on Raw

Nia Jax vs. Alexa Bliss—Raw Women's Championship

Ronda Rousey's scowl alone is more popular than the majority of the WWE roster.

How could a match come with two corner-women and no stools?

Rusev vs. AJ Styles

Between the number of heels winning in underwhelming matches and the length of this pay-per-view, Rusev vs. AJ Styles hardly had the live arena energy of a WWE Championship match. Mind you, there's still a 30-minute Iron Man Match on deck.

Rusev and AJ Styles tried their best and even had me fooled that Rusev might win for a fall or two. Good on them.

To my knowledge, there are no Extreme Rules stipulations in this match, so there's no reason for Dolph Ziggler to be dressed like Super Dave Osborne.

This match seemed like it needed finishes early and often just to make sure the fans were still awake.

Hijack Watch: During the main event, A bored PPG Paints Arena found solace in counting down the final ten seconds of every minute a la the Royal Rumble.

In the era of restless fans armed with smartphones, it's a tough task to book a 30-minute Iron Man main event on a show that has run past four hours.

Vince McMahon turned off the clock in the live arena in a move that drove 10,000 fans in the arena to the WWE Network so they could keep track, proving—no matter what—WWE will not take an L.

A rough week for this feud as Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre main-evented a Raw that saw the lowest viewership ever, then their blowoff match was hijacked by the live crowd.

I've been a pro wrestling columnist and video blogger for a leading national sports website since 2010. I graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a major in business economics, an emphasis in accounting and a minor in sports management. As a lifelon...